Albanian Stuffed Peppers is quite a common dish that we have, you can eat them hot, warm or cold so are great to cook early on and leave for later.

These easy stuffed peppers are filled with ground beef, onions, herbs and a very small amount of tomato sauce made from the tomato puree.

Peppers in Albania are grown everywhere and are called ‘speca’. Mostly the type grown is Guernica peppers which are ideal for stuffing, roasting but can make casseroles sour if cooked for too long.

Tip: You can get different tastes from different peppers and colours. Red, Yellow and Orange peppers are sweet, Green are sour – using a mix of all allows stuffed peppers for everyone.

To create the filling, brown the onions for 2 minutes in some olive oil and on a medium heat before adding the mince beef. Once the beef has browned, add the rosemary, basil, salt, pepper and tomato puree. Add a bit more oil to ensure there is at least 1cm of juice once all ingredients are in the pot.

Leave to sweat for 10 minutes, then turn off and leave to cool for 15 minutes.

Once the mixture is cooled, stir in the rice just before you stuff the peppers.

While the filling is cooling, take out the stalks on the peppers and scoop out the seeds, you can keep the top of the pepper to put back on top after filled, or as i mostly do, discard them.

Stuff the peppers with the meat mixture ensuring you push some all the way down and is completely full. As each one is done, place into a baking dish. If there is any mixture left, place into the dish around the stuffed peppers.

Bake in the oven on 180 degrees for 1 hour turning occasionally if desired but not necessary.